White officer arrested in death of her black neighbor in Dallas

The policewoman reported that she shot Botham Jean after confusing his apartment for hers.

By and KEN MILLERAssociated Press

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Botham Jean leads a worship service in September 2017. Authorities say a police officer mistakenly entered his apartment and killed him. Jeff Montgomery/Harding University via AP

DALLAS — A white Dallas police officer was arrested Sunday on a manslaughter warrant in the shooting of a black man at his home, Texas authorities said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said in a news release that Officer Amber Guyger was booked into the Kaufman County Jail and that the investigation is ongoing. It said no additional information is available at this time.

The 30-year-old Guyger fatally shot 26-year-old Botham Jean on Thursday. Lawyers for Jean’s family had been calling for Guyger’s arrest, saying the fact that she had remained free days after the shooting showed she was receiving favorable treatment.

Attorney S. Lee Merritt said Saturday that the family wasn’t calling on the authorities to jump to conclusions or to deny Officer Amber Guyger her right to due process. But Merritt, flanked by members of the family and Mothers Against Police Brutality, said they want Guyger “to be treated like every other citizen, and where there is evidence that they’ve committed a crime, that there’s a warrant to be issued and an arrest to be made.”

Guyger is a four-year veteran of the police force. The Dallas Police Department released her name Saturday night – two nights after she shot and killed Jean.

Police Chief U. Renee Hall said the day after the shooting that her department was seeking manslaughter charges against Guyger. But she said Saturday that the Texas Rangers, who have taken over the investigation, asked her department to hold off because they had learned new information and wanted to investigate further before a warrant was issued.

Police on Sunday referred questions to the Rangers. A spokesman for the agency, Lonny Haschel, said in an email that no additional information was available.

Jean’s family has also hired attorney Benjamin Crump, who is best known for representing the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Martin, a black, unarmed 17-year-old, was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012 in Sanford, Florida. Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old, was shot and killed by a white police officer in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

According to police, Guyger shot and killed Jean after returning in uniform to the South Side Flats, where they both had apartments, following her shift. She reported the shooting to dispatchers and she told officers who responded that she had mistaken Jean’s apartment for her own.

Many questions remain about what led Guyger to shoot Jean. Hall said the officer’s blood was drawn at the scene so that it could be tested for alcohol and drugs. Investigators haven’t released the results of those tests.

Jean wasn’t the first person shot by Guyger. She shot another man, Uvaldo Perez, on May 12, 2017, while she was on duty. According to an affidavit in the case filed against Perez, police were looking for a suspect when Guyger and another officer were called to assist a third. Perez got out of a car and became combative with Guyger and another officer. A struggle began and Guyger fired her Taser at Perez, who then wrested it away from her. She then drew her gun and fired, wounding Perez in the abdomen.

Guyger was not charged in the 2017 shooting.

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